Futures edge down as jobless claims jump

S&P downgrades Japan’s sovereign-debt rating

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures lost early gains on Thursday, after the Labor Department reported a bigger-than-expected increase in weekly jobless claims.

A downgrade of Japan’s sovereign debt was also in the spotlight.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6 points to 11,930, while those for the S&P 500 index were down 2.3 points at 1,291.40.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 were little changed at 2,319.

The Dow Industrials
DJIA, +0.35%
topped 12,000 on an intraday-level basis for the first time in over two years on Wednesday, in the wake of positive housing data and President Obama’s State of the Union address.

The Dow finished up 0.1% to 11,985.44.

Analysts said investors will be waiting to see if the Dow retests that key 12,000 level on Thursday, amid a heavy schedule of data and earnings.

Jobless claims jumped by 51,000 to 454,000 last week, partly because poor weather caused administrative backlogs in four Southern states. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to rise to 408,000 from a revised 403,000 the week before.

Shares of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.
POT, -56.25%
rose 3% in preopen trading after reporting fourth-quarter earnings of $1.61 per share, more than doubling that of a year ago, as sales jumped 64% to $1.81 billion.

Also reporting, Eli Lilly and Co.
LLY, -1.72%
said fourth-quarter net profit rose 28% on a 4% rise in revenue. It sees earnings per share for 2011 at $3.92 to $4.07 on a reported basis.

Lockheed Martin Corp.
LMT, +0.09%
shares gained after it reported a 19% rise in fourth-quarter profit on a sales gain of 4.8%, and forecast revenue in a range of $45.75 billion to $47.25 billion, and earnings from continuing operations of between $6.70 and $7.00 a share.

In Asia overnight, focus was on Japan where Standard & Poor’s cut Japan’s long-term debt rating to AA minus from AA, citing high fiscal deficit woes for the country. The dollar jumped against the yen after the announcement, which came after the close of Tokyo stock markets. See story on S&P’s downgrade of Japan.

The dollar was last up 1.1% to ¥83.03.

In Shanghai, stocks advanced, with resource stocks offsetting a fall in property developers after China introduced new measures to combat rising home prices.

In Europe, stocks were higher for a second day, with gains for miners compensating for a handful of weak corporate results. Shares of Novartis AG
NVS, -0.43%
fell in Switzerland after it warned of a difficult 2011 on patent expiries and drug-price cuts in the U.S. See European Markets.

Gold futures for February delivery rose $1.50 to $1,334.50 an ounce.

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